Hugh Huger Toland (April 16, 1806 – February 27, 1880) was an American

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

who founded the

Toland Medical College The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant medical school in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It conducts r ...

, which later became the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was one of the most successful surgeons in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He was from

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, and was active in San Francisco.

Biography

Hugh Huger Toland was born on April 16, 1806 in Guilder's Creek, Newberry County, South Carolina. He was the fourth of ten children, his father was planter John Toland (1776–1849), and his mother was Mary Boyd (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Spence) Toland (1778–1858). Toland received his medical degree in 1828 from Transylvania Medical College, in Lexington, Kentucky. After practicing medicine in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

, he arrived in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

with his wife in 1851. In 1864 he established Toland Medical College, building a headquarters at the corner of Stockton and Francisco, across from the San Francisco City and County Hospital. Most of the faculty and students transferred from the earlier Cooper Medical College, which had closed after the death of its founder, Elias Samuel Cooper. The first class graduated in 1865. By 1870, the school had a class of thirty students and forty-five alumni. That year, Toland sought to affiliate the school to the recently created

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

. In March 1873, the school became the Medical Department of the University of California. Initially, he fought to keep his name in the institution, but he eventually gave in, feeling that a public institution should not bear the name of a private person.

Death and legacy

He died of a stroke at age 74, in San Francisco. He was buried at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

, however his remains were moved to

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a rural cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent". History Cypress Lawn Memorial Park is the final resting site for several memb ...

, Colma,

by 1941. The main lecture hall at

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

bears his name. The same lecture hall features many murals, some depicting Hugh Toland himself. Brown and Toland Physicians, a Bay Area medical group, is named after Toland and Charlotte Blake Brown.

References

External links

Biography at UCSF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toland, Hugh University of California, San Francisco 1806 births 1880 deaths People from Newberry County, South Carolina Physicians from South Carolina American surgeons Transylvania University alumni